


A Year Prior

by Nebulad



Series: Bold & Golden [1]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Court Magician AU, F/M, Fluff, Other, pre-plague
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 18:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12513960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: Ana rolled over, mostly to take advantage of the angle where she could bury her face against the crook of Lucio's neck and avoid the eager touching barely after the sunrise had kissed the horizon. “Nadia will have you up soon to start prepping.”“That,” kiss, crown of the head, “iswhy,”kiss, between the eyes, “you’re up right now.”





	A Year Prior

“It’s my birthday,” Lucio said, as if Ana didn’t know. The sun was hardly in the sky and he was already pressing open-mouthed kisses to her shoulders, his arm reaching around her hips to pull her up against him. “As of… an hour ago.”

Ana rolled over, mostly to take advantage of the angle where she could bury her face against the crook of his neck and avoid the eager touching barely after the sunrise had kissed the horizon. “Nadia will have you up soon to start prepping.”

“That,” kiss, crown of the head, “is _why,”_ kiss, between the eyes, “you’re up right now.” His left shoulder rolled and he tried to smother a scowl in frustration; he needed his arm, but she’d insisted he not wear it to bed anymore after seeing all the places where he’d nearly cut himself on the silly golden flourishes.

She nuzzled him, moving too close for him to kiss. “I’m tired,” she protested.

“I was _born_ today.”

“That’s nice, love.” She was mostly teasing him— she could be kinder later in the day, and Nadia would refuse to spend the entire afternoon with him for her own sanity. “No one’s more pleased that you were born than me, save you.”

He was quiet for a while, but amicably so with tamer kisses. The perfect number would’ve still been zero so she could fall back asleep, but it was his birthday so she forgave him. “Will you…?” he started, and she looked up at him. “The cards,” he said, his eyes flashing to her much smaller vanity in his room. The large one was for him, but tucked away she had her own that kept the myriad magic artifacts she preferred to have near her. The shop held most replaceable items, but since Lucio had petulantly insisted she stay closer to him she’d moved most of her personal bits to his room.

“What a depressing way to start your birthday,” she hummed, and he resumed his lazy kissing down her throat and collar. “Fine,” she decided when he failed to agree or disagree with her. “Keep in mind that I take no responsibility for whatever the cards say.” He let her get up, briefly pulling her back to hand her the robe he already had prepared for her. The rude early awakening had clearly been premeditated.

He was warm against her back as she began setting out the cards— she didn’t even need to look up to know that he was watching them both in the mirror, grinning. Pretty, petty, vain, perfect. She smiled. “Think you can focus on my hands long enough to see your fortune?” she asked.

“Watching your hands takes surprisingly little effort,” he murmured, leaning a bit lower to see over her shoulder. “Go on, don’t leave me in suspense.”

“You'd be impossible to live with,” she agreed, laughing when he swiped his cold hand against her stomach. He settled, though, and so she heaved a sigh and flipped the card. She let a heartbeat of silence pass, frowning. “Tower,” she answered finally. “You will serve as a catalyst of change, inevitably.”

“Ohh,” he hummed flippantly, giving her another kiss. “I like it.” He moved to his enormous closet, evidently looking to surprise Nadia by being awake and ready for her by the time she summoned him to start preparation for his birthday. “Catalyst for change— I expected that when I took the throne in the first place. As if anyone could stop me from changing what I liked; they would have, if they could’ve,” he said with a kind of off-coloured laugh that usually told her he was talking about killing a lot of people.

“Lucio.” Her voice hardly making it out of her throat as she listened to him moving around. It was involuntary to scold him for that sort of bragging, so even if he’d heard her he would’ve pretended he hadn’t.

“More change yet— I wonder what. I can’t think of anything I’d want different.” He was muffled through the walls of the closet, but she could already hear clothes being discarded as he tried to decide on his look for the day. _Not yet,_ the cards assured her. _Soon, but not yet._ The day would pass just as he wanted it to, and he would be adored well into the evening. He would come back to her.

 _And then,_ they warned her as Lucio began humming some bawdy song from his years as a mercenary, _he won’t._

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com) and the game I'm working on [is here.](https://nebulous.itch.io/manor-hill) Two very important places.
> 
>  _Hope you like your marshmallows burnt,_ the cards say, mystically. _And by marshmallows we mean boyfriends._ I do like Lucio and am very excited for his potential romance— I'm always a sucker for the spoiled brat characters. Do keep in mind that the lovely Ana is pulling these Count-kissing shenanigans with the full knowledge and blessing of Nadia. The palace has really been saving on the wine budget since Nadia got to stop spending time with Lucio. I had a thousand drafts of stories where Ana has it out with Nadia, and by that I mean "cries a little bit because she likes Nadia too much to fool around with her husband, to which Nadia replies _no please it's been so quiet since you got here, keep doing what you're doing"._
> 
> It also occurs in my broader "Court Magician" AU where I play with the idea that the magician was more central to events than the story currently implies. So Ana, my Lucio romance, would be close to him and probably end up magically exploding or some shit to wipe everyone's fucking memories after he died, with no real theory on how he died. Jhend, my Julian romance, would end up being close to the doctor and work with him to try curing the plague and probably kill Lucio herself out of spite. Although honestly I don't think he's dead I think Asra kind of put something in his head about cheating death (for whatever reason as Asra clearly does not and has no reason to like him; plus seems to be open to some experimental magic) and Lucio tried to pull it off and ended up fucking everything up.


End file.
